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Ghosts:Goatman
Back to Ghosts The Goatman Matt rolled up in his high school graduation present. He had to slap his pledge brother Karl to get him out of his drunken stupor. The actives had said there wasn't much to this, just take a picture of one of the other pledges standing next to the bus. The last shot of five-dollar vodka had worn off hours ago when they told him what he had to do. Karl got out of the car and groggily swore at the actives, Matt, and the town for good measure. FINISH THE STORY Background: Along a rural highway road outside of the college town is a wrecked school bus not far off the road at the edge of a forest. Some of the local fraternities have their freshman drive past with a digital camera and take a picture from their car; after graduation the alumni of those fraternities scare themselves again by telling stories of their experiences. On closer inspection one can find simple, worn gravestones surrounding the school bus and going farther into the woods. The gravestones are far older than the school bus. The area is full of trash and broken glass. This is where the Goatmen resides. The story changes with each telling but there are some basic components told by college students to the incoming freshman. A man was driving the school bus and crashed into a turn of the century graveyard. He hit his head or was insane and killed the remaining children waiting to go home from school, their bodies are buried in the old graves. He lived out there for months before the bus was found and he was shot and killed when he was found. His ghost remains there still. The truth is far simpler: a burnt-out 40-something hippie fell asleep at the wheel of his traveling house-on-wheels and died as a result. His body wasn't found for weeks and the owner of the land has decided to forget about the land. The ghost has been there for 20 years and has transformed from a flower-child to a cynical murderer. The reason is unknown, but it possibly could be darker spirits or ghosts already residing in the forest or graveyard, the dark emotions that generations of college students have forced on the site, or simply being alone. The cycle is simple and true every 2-4 years some drunk college students go out to the bus, finds there is nothing really scary, and starts busting the area up. The lucky ones pass out. The Goatman does not lay a finger on any students, instead he uses his numen to "contact" some locals. The locals come out find some very drunk college students (who they despise) and beat them and take them away. Some wake up with a few broken bones in a ditch the next day or in a dumpster in town. A few accidents happen and some die and their bodies are not found for weeks far out in the vast forest. The Goatman rarely "contacts" the same locals and most locals don't have stories about the abandoned school bus. The college students stories renew and refresh and after a few semesters pass into legend, and the dares start up again. Description: The Goatman manifests only when there is a severe dry spell of college-student curiousity. His face is elongated with a severe overbite, and the Goatman's hair is so thick and unkempt that when it is swept back they have the slight appearance of horns. A serious hunched back completes the picture. Storytelling Hints: Hints Story Seeds: * A townie, Fred, was linked to the murder of a college student to the point of fingerprints and DNA. Fred remembers drinking heavily on a Friday night and getting the urge to go vandalize something at the bus. Then it all becomes a blur until, he had to go into Walmart to work the next morning. Three different State psychiatrists examined Fred before his murder trial and they all concluded that Fred did indeed have no recollection of that night. The physical evidence was overwhelming at the trial, but the jury hung itself three separate times because a minority of the jurors could not believe it beyond a reasonable doubt. Fred was released from custody on a limited probation after the third trial. * The Goatman's haunt is indeed occupied by other forces that start troubling the ghost to no end. He starts using his Numen to try and call people that will help him by ridding his anchor of the other infestation. The people come confused as to the reason for finding themselves there and fall prey to the occupying forces. * A fraternity takes the Goatman legend a few steps too far. They begin to venerate the bus and perform vigils and initiations at the crash site. One of the actives starts dating a Wiccan and gets interested in some of her crazy books. He decides the fraternity will sacrifice a goat the next time they hold a meeting out there. Most actives opt out of this one, but a few curiously tag along with the nervous pledges. They get drunk, have a campfire, and very unceremoniously kill the goat. Nothing really happens and they burn the goat carcass. The next morning they take the goat's skull back to the fraternity as a token of their stupidity; the Goatman finds that he has gained another anchor centered on fraternity row. Attributes: Power 2, Finesse 3, Resistance 4 Willpower: 6 Morality: 3 Virtue: Faith Vice: Wrath Initiative: 7 Defense: 3 Speed: 15 Corpus: 9 Numina: Mind Itch (dice pool #) Notes: The Mind Itch Numen can be found HERE